Cloudways vs Hosting.com
Cloudways and Hosting.com compared on measured uptime, response time, pricing and features from our own tests. Cloudways scores higher overall.
By Jennifer T. · Updated
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Verdict
CloudwaysWins overall
DigitalOcean's managed cloud layer: servers from $11 a month on five clouds, billed hourly, staging and caching included
The former A2 Hosting under World Host Group: stated cores and RAM, 30-day backups, staging from Pro, phone support
Cloudways wins 2 of the six sub-scores and comes out ahead overall (7.8 vs 7.7).
How do the scores compare?
Cloudways leads on 2 sub-scores, Hosting.com on 3. Higher is better.
| Cloudways | Hosting.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | 8.0 | 8.5 (better) |
| Uptime | 8.5 (better) | 8.0 |
| Support | 7.5 (better) | 6.0 |
| Features | 8.0 | 8.5 (better) |
| Value | 7.0 | 7.0 |
| Ease of use | 7.0 | 7.5 (better) |
Which one is faster and more reliable?
| Cloudways | Hosting.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall score | 7.8 (better) | 7.7 |
| Uptime (published)Kripesh Adwani 365 d vs Kripesh Adwani 365 d; methods differ | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Response time (published)HostingStep vs HostingStep; methods differ | 442 ms (better) | 500 ms |
Which one costs less?
On renewal, Hosting.com is cheaper ($13.99/mo vs $14.00/mo). Intro prices need the listed term.
| Cloudways | Hosting.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | DigitalOcean Premium Micro | Starter |
| Intro price | $14.00/mo | $1.99/mo (better) |
| Renewal price | $14.00/mo | $13.99/mo (better) |
| Required term | 1 months (better) | 48 months |
| Websites | unlimited | 5 |
| Storage | 25 GB | 15 GB |
| Money back | 0 days | 30 days (better) |
What does each include?
| Cloudways | Hosting.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Free domain | No | First year |
| Free SSL | Let's Encrypt certificates on every application | Standard on Starter and Pro; premium certificate on Max |
| Backups | On-demand and scheduled server backups with one-click restore; offsite storage billed at $0.033 per GB per server | Not stated |
| Free migration | Free migration of existing sites | Not stated |
| Free CDN | No | Not stated |
| Caching | Lightning Stack (NGINX), Object Cache Pro and Redis included on every plan | Not stated |
| Staging | Advanced staging and cloning on every plan | 3 sites on Starter, 20 on Pro, 200 on Max |
| No | Not stated | |
| Resource limits | A whole server per customer: 1 to 8 GB RAM and 1 to 4 vCPU on the listed sizes, larger sizes and other providers available | Not stated |
| Data center choice | The provider's regions, chosen per server: DigitalOcean 9, Vultr 30, Linode 25, AWS 28, Google Cloud 28 | Not stated |
| Uptime guarantee | No | 99.9% per month; 5% of the service fee credited per hour of unscheduled downtime, up to the full month, on request |
| Security | Built-in firewall with IP blocking, WordPress vulnerability scanner, bot protection and dedicated firewalls per the pricing page | Not stated |
| Free trial | 3 days without a credit card | Not stated |
| Phone support | No | +1 (734) 222-4678, 24/7/365 |
| Windows hosting | No | No |
| Daily backups | Not stated | Stored off-server, restore to any point in the last 30 days |
| Free managed migration | Not stated | Yes |
| Web application firewall and malware removal | Not stated | Yes |
| Caching and hardware | Not stated | LiteSpeed caching, tuned MySQL, AMD EPYC CPUs, NVMe storage |
| AI website builder for WordPress | Not stated | Yes |
| OpenAPI and MCP server | Not stated | On every plan; Claude skills pack and Node.js from Pro |
| Service level agreement | Not stated | Max plan only |
Company facts
| Cloudways | Hosting.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Control panel | Cloudways platform (its own console); no cPanel | cPanel with the hosting.com panel on top |
| Data centers | 1 | 5 (better) |
| Support channels | chat, ticket, knowledge-base | chat, ticket, phone, email, knowledge-base |
| Founded | 2011 | 2003 |